Survey of Bioterrorism Risk in Buildings

Due to the lack of data and experience with designing buildings for a bioterrorism hazard, it is important for civil engineering professionals to understand both the way that risk is currently accounted for in the design of a building for a bioterrorism hazard and the methods for analyzing risks to buildings that can be borrowed from risk analysis professionals. This paper provides a literature survey of four subject areas dealing with the risk analysis of bioterrorism applied to buildings: (1) perception of the risk of bioterrorism; (2) risk analysis of bioterrorism; (3) risk management of bioterrorism risks; and (4) risk communication of bioterrorism risks, and includes an example of a simple risk analysis process for a hypothetical building. Bioterrorism presents building design engineers with new challenges. It is a very unpredictable hazard, and very little data exist to guide building designers and decision makers in protecting buildings from this hazard. Designing a building with bioterrorist attacks in mind involves many different disciplines, including, for example, structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering, architecture, landscape architecture, security design professions, and law enforcement. Large consequences are possible in the event of a successful attack, and many building design engineers have little or no experience with defending against a bioterrorist attack. It is important that a reasonable process for analyzing and dealing with these risks be established, and that the process include issues of risk perception and communication within the risk analysis framework.